| In January 2013, Tyson Timbs used $42,000 of life insurance proceeds he received after his father’s death to purchase a Land Rover sport utility vehicle (SUV). Timbs, who had just moved to Indiana to help his aunt rebuild her life, was also having life difficulties at the time, having become addicted to an opioid pain medication he was prescribed for a painful foot injury. Timbs’ addiction escalated to such a point that he went from abusing his opioid prescription to using and then selling heroin to fund his addiction. Eventually, a man who worked as a confidential informant for law enforcement connected Timbs with undercover police officers posing as drug buyers. On two occasions, Timbs sold the police a total of four grams of heroin for $385. He was arrested while driving to meet the police for a third sale.
Timbs pleaded guilty to one count of selling a controlled substance and was sentenced to 6 years in jail, but was released for home detention and probation. The state also brought a separate lawsuit seeking forfeiture of Timbs’ SUV under a state law allowing the seizure of property used to facilitate a criminal offense. A trial court denied the state’s forfeiture claim after finding that Timbs had purchased the SUV legally, not with crime-tainted funds, and that that forfeiture would be “grossly disproportional to the gravity of [Timbs’] offense,” thereby violating the Eighth Amendment’s excessive fines clause. This decision was initially affirmed on appeal, but was thereafter reversed by the Indiana Supreme Court, which ruled that the U.S. Supreme Court has never held that the Eighth Amendment’s excessive fines clause applies to the states.
In its amicus brief, The Rutherford Institute argued that the excessive fines clause does limit the power of states. Moreover, Institute attorneys warned that states and municipalities face a strong temptation to use fines, civil penalties, and asset forfeitures to bridge their fiscal shortfalls, and the Eighth Amendment is needed to prevent abuse of this power.
The Supreme Court’s opinion and The Rutherford Institute’s amicus brief in Timbs v. State of Indiana are available at www.rutherford.org.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the opinion for the Court. Attorneys D. Alicia Hickok, Mark Taticchi, S. Vance Wittie, and Matthew C. Sapp of Drinker, Biddle & Reath LLP assisted The Rutherford Institute in presenting the arguments in Timbs.
The Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit civil liberties organization, provides legal assistance at no charge to individuals whose constitutional rights have been threatened or violated.
This press release is also available at www.rutherford.org. |
